New Delhi: Visiting high-level European Parliament delegation on Monday expressed “regret” over non-response of the European Union (EU) to India’s proposal for a visit in April by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Brussels due to the Italian marines issue and said it will ask the 28-member bloc to “rapidly try” to fix the dates for India-EU Summit.
Chair of the EU Delegation for relations with India Geoffrey Van Orden said a date for Mr. Modi’s visit was under discussion and it took too long on the part of the EU to confirm it following which India called off the plan.
The delegation will ask the EU to “rapidly try” and identify a new date for a summit between India and EU, which had last taken place in 2012, and hoped that the Indian leadership will respond in a positive way, Orden said.
Admitting that Italian marines was an issue for EU, he, however, said importance of the relationship between the two sides was much larger than the matter and calling off of Modi’s plan to visit Brussels was disappointing.
Asked whether the delegation would meet Modi, Orden said the Prime Minister had a very busy international engagement due to which it could not meet him.
